They both played fast and loose with the truth and neither delivered a knock-out blow. But observers think Kerry just shaded it, reports Conor O'Clery, in Tempe, Arizona
Senator John Kerry was adjudged the winner of the third and final presidential debate, which turned into 90 minutes of jabs, quips, mis-statements, charges, counter-charges and finally, at the end, a little humour.
President Bush now has 18 days to recover lost momentum by doing what he does best - firing up his supporters at rallies where he is treated like a rock star. Within minutes of the end of the Wednesday evening debate at Arizona State University, Mr Bush was given a rapturous reception by 40,000 supporters who packed a baseball stadium for a "victory" party.
"We're going to travel this country with a message that's hopeful and optimistic," he told them, "and we're going to win."
But the White House is now waiting anxiously for the first opinion polls to see how the two bitter rivals stand after Mr Kerry's hat-trick of debate victories. History shows that the candidate who is ahead after the final debate goes on to win the election. Mr Kerry too had his supporters out in force in Tempe.
Some 20,000 attended a debate concert featuring the Foo Fighters, and cheered every point scored by the Democratic challenger as they watched the exchanges on a giant screen. The news channels all declared Mr Kerry the winner, CNN by 52-39, NBC 42-41 and CBS 39-25. The CBS panel showed that the Massachusetts senator had undone some of the damage caused by his depiction as a flip-flopper.
At the start of the debate only 29 per cent said Mr Kerry had a clear position on the issues, but at the end this had more than doubled to 68 per cent. While rated the loser, Mr Bush gave a stronger performance here than in the first debate in Florida, and came across as more likeable. He scored points by depicting Mr Kerry as too liberal to be president, turning to him at one point and saying "You sit on the far left bank" of American politics, even to the left of Senator Edward Kennedy.
However, Mr Kerry succeeded in his goal of making the election more of a referendum on the President. He mentioned the word "President" 54 times in reciting a litany of alleged mistakes by "this President". Mr Bush used the word "taxes" 28 times, as he kept highlighting his tax cuts.
The debate ranged from jobs, healthcare and the economy to guns and gay marriage, and sharp differences emerged. On abortion Mr Kerry said he would not appoint judges who would overturn the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v Wade decision legalising abortion.
President Bush said he had no litmus test for judges and would promote "a culture of life". Most Americans support a woman's right to chose but opposition to abortion is a major issue with religious conservatives.
Asked if they believed homosexuality was natural, Mr Bush said he did not know, while Mr Kerry said: "If you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as."
This infuriated the Vice-President's wife, Lynn Cheney, who later called it a "cheap and tawdry political trick". She told a rally near Pittsburgh that it showed Mr Kerry "is not a good man". The Kerry camp replied that Mr Cheney had himself volunteered the information about his daughter Mary, a campaign aide, at a rally, but it appeared to many viewers that Mr Kerry was making a deliberate effort to hurt the Bush-Cheney ticket with religious conservatives.
Both candidates played fast and loose with the truth in jabbing at each other.
Mr Bush blamed growing healthcare costs on litigation against doctors by lawyers like Mr Kerry's running mate John Edwards, while law suits account for less than 2 per cent of healthcare spending. Mr Kerry said that Mr Bush was the first President not to meet the Congressional Black Caucus but he actually met them twice. The Democratic challenger claimed that Mr Bush took a $5.6 trillion surplus and turned it into a deficit but the figure is only a projection over 10 years: the surplus never exceeded $236 billion. Mr Kerry also exaggerated the number of jobs lost.
Mr Bush accused his rival of voting 98 times to raise taxes but studies show that 43 votes were for budgets that did not raise or lower taxes and 16 were part of Bill Clinton's much-praised deficit reduction package. The charge that Mr Kerry is more liberal than Senator Kennedy is also misleading: the National Journal rates him the 11th most liberal senator in his 20 years in the Senate, with Mr Kennedy ranked 5th.
Mr Bush claimed to have increased funding for education but the increase came from Congress after the Bush administration proposed cuts. There were many more dubious claims but one that Mr Bush challenged turned out to be fairly accurate. Mr Kerry recalled that six months after vowing to catch Osama bin-Laden dead or alive, the President had said he didn't know where the al-Qaeda leader was and that "I don't really think about him very much, I'm not that concerned."
Mr Bush looked astounded.
"Gosh, I don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin-Laden," he said. "That's kind of one of those exaggerations." However, at a press conference six months after 9/11, Mr Bush said about Osama bin-Laden: "I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. . ."
Neither candidate delivered a knock-out punch. Mr Kerry's clever comment that "being lectured by the President on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order" fell flat with viewers who do not have the pay-per-view channel that features the Mafia leader.
The final question from Bob Schieffer of CBS produced the only humour of an otherwise grim debate. Both candidates had married strong women, he said. What was the most important thing they had learned from them?
"To listen to them, to stand up straight and not scowl," replied Mr Bush to laughter, referring to his much-criticised facial expressions during the first debate.
Mr Kerry, who is awkward talking about his personal life, rose to the occasion. They were both examples of lucky people who married up, he said, adding with a grin, "And some would say maybe me more so than others." (Mr Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, is a billionaire.)
He went on to talk about his mother, who before she died two years ago told him to remember three things when he ran for president: "integrity, integrity and integrity."
After the debate there were ritual handshakes but Laura Bush and Teresa Heinz Kerry exchanged what looked like a warm hug. Between now and November 2nd the two women will be on the campaign trail as surrogates for their husbands.
Like the President, Laura Bush is extremely popular with Republicans while Mrs Kerry has yet to connect with partisan voters. Republicans wanted to have a debate between the two women, according to a Kerry-Edwards insider, but the Democrats turned it down.